1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing apparatus, a print control method, and a program.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, printing apparatuses having a reprint function have been known. In reprint processing (hereinafter, referred to as reprint), contents of a printed job are stored, and the contents are printed again as necessary. Meanwhile, variable data printing or variable data publishing (VDP) has been known. In VDP, for example, as in case of direct mail, contents can be changed depending on the recipient. Generally, printing apparatuses having a VDP function insert variable information, such as an address stored on a database into a layout that is provided in advance, and perform the print processing. The printing apparatuses can perform the print processing by simply changing the addresses, or by changing images (contents) on the layout or paper to be used depending on information of a recipient. In the print processing in which the images or paper to be used are changed, the number of pages may change accordingly. Further, VDP print jobs are generally large jobs containing many records.
An example of where re-printing a print job would be a case where a print result is different from an intended one and not appropriate. In this instance, a user would typically execute the same print job again. In such a case, for example, as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-211213, a method of reprinting only a specified page, odd pages, even pages, etc., instead of reprinting all pages is known. Further, for example, as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-091740, a method of storing a page in which a jam occurred, or a page in which a paper-out condition occurred is known. In this method, only the relevant page is printed. Further, in a case where the print processing is performed normally, but improper paper is fed due to a wrong printing attribute, a method of putting a restriction to prevent changing the attribute and feeding of improper paper in performing reprint is known, as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2009-205257.
In the above-described methods, printing apparatuses may use improper paper in the print processing when the printing apparatuses cannot recognize that the paper is improper. For example, it is assumed that a user sets colored paper in a paper feed stage, and a job using the colored paper is issued. However, after the print processing is finished, the user may find that, instead of red paper, orange paper was used instead. In such a case, when the same colored paper is used in the entire job, it is preferable to replace the incorrect colored paper with the correct colored paper and re-print the pages in questions. In VDP, when many records are printed in one job, in many cases, improper paper is used only in part of the job. In such a case, it is not preferable to re-print the entire job.
In the method discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-211213, the page to be reprinted can be specified and printed. However, in the example of printing using colored paper, it is not easy to visually look for the page where the orange paper is used and extract the associated page number(s). Further, in the VDP, the print processing is divided into record units and not serially numbered. Consequently, the mistakenly set paper is used in various records. Further, it is not uncommon that one job contains data of more than 500 pages. In such a job, it is not realistic to extract the page number. Further, the method in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-091740 relates to an error that can be detected by the printing apparatus. In the method in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-091740, after the print processing, with respect to a problem found by a user or an inspection device, it is necessary to issue the job again and print the data. Further, in the method in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2009-205257, when the paper is simply mistakenly set, it is necessary to issue the job again and print the data.